This is just to say

In class today I said:

Suppose I wrote a note and stuck it to the refrigerator:

"Sorry I drank all the milk; I'll get some more after class."

Is that a poem?

No, they sd.

Then I said:

"I drank all our milk; I hope you're not mad
I'll get some after class, and then you'll be glad"

That's a poem! It rhymes. One student said: your roommate will not be so mad, because you expressed the message in humorous form.

Then I sd: I have eaten the plums / that were in the icebox / and which you were probably / saving for breakfast..." Why is that a poem, and not a simple message? Was it because the plums were "so sweet / and so cold." ??

Or is it because the poem still means something for us? We are not the addresee of the poem, the person for whom the pome was meant...